A Series of Failed Girlfriends: A Leo Valdez Story
by lilmonkey13
Summary: Being in a group of 'love birds' it's hard to be the only one with out a girlfriend. It's not like I didn't try! Here I'll tell you the tales of my series of failed girlfriends. Co written with: Justanotherharrypotterfan3817
1. Stella

**A Series of Failed Girlfriends: a Leo Valdez Story**

* * *

**Intro**

* * *

Being the third wheel is hard; being the fifth wheel is annoying; but being the _seventh wheel!?_—it's just sad.

That was what I was told after helping save the western life style. That's all the Aphrodite kids cared about! Not the fact that I helped keep it so that they could prance around being idiots, nope all they told me is that it was so very, very sad that I was the seventh wheel. I mean COME ON!

It's not like I don't try to ask girls out, I do it all the time! But no one wants to go out with a Mexican midget who makes engines, not even if he also makes FREAKING DRAGONS! Or that I can make a fire ANYWHERE! Nope just the annoying thing about me not having a girlfriend. I mean seriously?-Seriously?!

But sorry I'm getting carried away.

My name is Leo Valdez, and this is the story of my many failed girlfriends.

* * *

**Chapter One: Patricia **

* * *

The first day back from the amazing trip everyone was happy and thankful, but as weeks past people seemed to forget that we all went on a life threaten quest to save all their lives, but honestly that was for the better; we all just wanted to go back to being regular campers.

Not that Percy, Annabeth, or Jason could ever be normal campers.

Jason and Percy had defeated titans and were children of the big three, Annabeth's own knife brought down Kronos _and _was the girlfriend of a big three kid _and _was the leader of the Athena cabin _and _well the list goes on but I don't want to continue.

Piper, Hazel, Frank, Nico and I all just went back to being regular campers after the trip. Nico even being a big three kid didn't get the attention like Jason or Percy, same with Hazel they were both almost looked down on because their dad was Hades. Frank, Piper and I were all kids of less popular topic gods so really, no one cared. Sure there were always the jokes of our parents in a permanent love triangle, and how we were probably too (I mean really can't come up with something more original?) but we couldn't help that our parents were weirdo's! So really there wasn't much to do but go on with our lives summer and just act normal. Frank, Hazel and Jason went back to San Francisco and the rest of us just went back to classes.

Maybe a month later I finally got up the courage to ask out this one girl, her name was Stella. She was one of the less annoying Aphrodite girls but just as beautiful.

Her olive color skin and rich chocolate eyes sat beautifully under her fashionable cut black hair. She dressed in jeans and the camp T-shirt all the time and looked very down to earth.

"Hi," I say to her during Greek history class.

She smiles, "Hi, you're Leo right?"

"Yeah! How did you know?" I ask.

"You helped save western civilization…I think everyone knows you." She states.

"Oh yeah, that." I make a pshaw noise and shake my head. "It was nothing really," I say making a 'flirty' face at her.

She laughs and puts her hand on mine, I feel like my face is on fire! She screams and then I feel my face…it's literally on fire…!

Let me tell you, when your face spontaneously combusts it is _awkward. _I was probably blushing but no one noticed…they were too busy looking for a fire extinguisher.

Needless to say, she didn't talk to me again…I think I might have singed her hair a little.


	2. Skylie Pearson

**A Series of Failed Girlfriends: A Leo Valdez Story**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

* * *

So I've told you about Stella, that was one of the 'less' embarrassing attempts of getting a date. Now lets roll back to before I found out I was a demigod and was still at the stupid boarding school. That's where I met Skylie Pearson; she was a super smart and began out as my tutor.

She would help me with reading, and show me these new stories that she liked. She was out going and real sporty. Why she was at that horrid school was beyond me!

Her lilac blond hair with blue streaks framed her tanned face and sky blue eyes. She couldn't be missed in a group of kids, she was special. Why she would spend time with me was crazy!

But enough listening to me; let's start the tale.

* * *

Sitting in my dorm with Skylie I can't help but smile at her. She looks up from the play that we are supposed to be reading and smiles back, "What are you looking at Valdez?" She asks, playfully pushing my shoulder.

"Your pretty eyes…" I say dreamily. She giggles and looks at me like I'm crazy. "You're silly Leo," She replies happily.

"How long till we can finish this dumb play?" I ask her.

"When you start reading it, until then we are going to stay on the first page." Her stubbornness makes me laugh but she just smiles and rolls her eyes.

Knowing that if I didn't start reading we would get in trouble I try to concentrate on the moving letters. I slam my hand on the small book and hold my head in my hands.

"I'm sorry, I can't read it…" I say frustrated.

"It's alright, hey, let's just stop for today!" I look up and see her leaning next to me. I smile and agree.

"Want to go steal some ice cream?" She asks. I nod and we head through the building quietly.

When we enter the small cafeteria we dodge the roaming cockroaches and other roaming pests. Sneaking to the back I get into the freezer and pull out two double chunk crunch bars, they were kept strictly for the 'teachers' but why shouldn't we get some relief from this place too?

I turn around to hand Skylie her ice cream but hear someone scream, "HEY! What are you kids doing?!" I toss the frozen treat to her and we run.

Laughing all the way to the fence that surrounds the building we stop and breathe for a minute. I turn around to say something to Skylie but her face is ashen.

"What is it?" I ask her. She drops her ice cream and backs away from the fence with a petrified face.

I turn around and follow her line of sight and I see it; a ten foot tall six headed _thing_ and it did not look happy.

I begin to run but when I hear a scream I turn and see that Skylie hasn't moved. She screams and screams but doesn't move!

I run to help her but she yells once more and a giant wave of water just appears! It drowns the monster; it falls and breaks the chain mail fence with a loud crunch. Then the weirdest thing I'd seen in my thirteen years happened right before my eyes: the monster turned to dust.

"Skylie…" I ask cautiously. She turns around and her eyes glow, I mean GLOW! She turns away from me and takes a step but crumbles to the ground.

"Skylie!" I run towards her and see that she is unconscious. I look around for help but no one seems to have noticed that a monster had appeared on the opposite side of the fence, tried to attack us, then was drowned by a thirty foot high wave (IN THE FREAKING DESERT), and just for some laughs broke the fence and turned to dust.

Skylie slowly wakes up again and smiles at me, "Hey, Valdez…" I smile back at her, a wave of concern washes off me. "Are you okay? Did you just see that! I mean there was a six headed monster and then a giant wave! I mean can you believe that!?"

She smiles and slowly sits up, "Leo, I want to tell you something, but…I don't think you would understand…I'm sorry, but I have to go." She goes to stand up and leave but I pull her back down.

"No."

"What?"

"I said, 'No', you aren't leaving me too. I won't let you." I tell her seriously.

"I'm glad you care but—" I cut her off.

"But nothing, Skylie, you are my best friend, you are not leaving me."

She is close to tears but takes a deep breath, "Leo, you're my best friend too, but, and don't cut me off this time," I laugh and she smiles, "It's not safe for me to be here, you could get hurt."

She stands up and begins to leave but I stop her, "Then let me give you something first," I pull her to me and give her a kiss on the lips.

"I love you Skylie…" I whisper in her ear. "I love you too Leo…." Closing my eyes I wait for her foot steps to die away.

When I opened my eyes again I was standing in front of an empty hole in the fence. Teachers came running up and took me back to my room, I was under punishment for a week, and had to fix the fence but that didn't matter to me.

Skylie said that she loved me, I shared my first kiss with a girl who loved me and I loved as well. That's why I felt such heart-break. Three years later and I found out about camp half-blood, I had thought _that what was so different about Skylie! _I had looked for her, and asked around but found out that no girl had ever come here named Skylie.

Now I'm mostly sure that she was killed before reaching or even hearing of the camp, because I know she was a daughter of Poseidon, that's the only way that wave could have showed up. I wasn't alone for long though, Jason and Piper came along and I had new friends but none ever could fill the hole that Skylie had left in my heart…

* * *

**A/N: Okay, I just wanted to say that I do know that Leo didn't start going to the wilderness school till he was sixteen, and that he started the same year as Piper and Jason. I just thought that it would be a good back drop for this chapter. **

**Skylie Pearson was completely thought up by: Justanotherharrypotterfan3817 thank you :D  
**


	3. Abigail

**A/N: **I just wanted to quickly say to Olympica, since they are a guest and I can't PM them: I wanted the pose the question of why wouldn't he lie to him? He's one of the gods they lie all the time and besides she never showed up to camp so he would never know differently. Thank you for giving me feed back, however this is one of my stories I can put any character I would like into it. Thank you again for reviewing.

* * *

**A Series of Failed Girlfriends: A Leo Valdez Story**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

* * *

So…yeah that was my story with Skylie… *sniff* Well! Let's get going! With the next story, it was about a month before we left for the Roman camp I was taking a break for a bit too just not be in Bunker Nine.

That's when I ran into Abigail Christon; a daughter of Iris and Butch's baby half-sister.

So let's just get this story going, I don't really want to listen to myself anymore…

* * *

Walking out of the Hephaestus cabin, I'm tinkering with a small mechanical piece for Festus then out of no where I'm on the ground groaning.

"What happened?" I whine.

"You ran into me!" A girl groans. I sit up and see that there is a girl with ginger hair. Her bangs hang barely over her eyebrows and frame her beautiful Mediterranean blue eyes. Her fair skin is lightly tanned with rosy undertones. Her cheeks are bright red when she sees who I am.

"Oh, I'm sorry…My fault." She says quickly and starts to pick herself up and brush off the dirt on her pretty green top.

"No, it's my fault; I wasn't watching where I was going." I say quickly and get up to help her off the ground.

She brushes me away and smiles. "No, you're fine. I got it."

I see her blushing, "What?" I ask with a smile.

"Oh, nothing, I'm just talking to the first fire using Hephaestus kid of the past two centuries and he just so happens to be very cute…" She says smiling at her feet.

Now also blushing, "Well, I think I'm talking to the most beautiful Iris girl…" I look up at her and I can see her face turning all red.

"Stop it…if you don't my face will ketch fire." She laughs.

"That would be very embarrassing!" I laugh with her.

"So, would you…I don't know…want to hang out?"

"I would love to!" I reply quickly. She smiles and I hold out my arm, she links hers in mine and we walk off to the woods.

We talk for hours about the future of the camp, what will happen if the Romans refuse to help us, silly stories of our lives and so much more. We sit in the field where, she tells me, a great battle accrued. A large pile of rocks sit in a broken pile and make very comfortable seats.

* * *

"Let me show you something," she whispers.

She puts her hands out palm up and closes her eyes; a rainbow goes from one hand to the other. I stare at it in awe and look at her, the rainbow of colors reflect on her fair skin. She opens her eyes and it disappears. She smiles at me and I keep staring in awe.

"That's amazing!" I tell her. She laughs and looks at the grass we sit on.

"I'm sure yours is cooler…" She replies modestly.

"No, it isn't. See watch," I put my hand out and a small flame dances to life. She stares in amazement as I make it dance across on my fingers then around my hand, when she has her full attention on the flame and not me I make it stand still and slowly change from a circle to a heart.

She smiles up at me and I close my hand to extinguish the flame. I begin to lean in closer to her but then I hear someone yell out, "Abi?—Are you out here?"

I turn to her and she begins to explain, "My ex-boyfriend. He was really over protective and well, boring. I broke up with him two weeks ago and he hasn't let me hang out with any guys since. The whole reason he has probably left us alone for this long is because he was too scared to come into the woods. I'm really sorry about this." I smile and nod saying that I understand.

"Abi!" I turn and look to see that there is a tall blond guy in full armor, sword and shield. He sees us and comes running towards me with his sword raised.

I quickly stand up with fists ablaze.

He stops for a minute then looks at the red-faced ginger girl.

"What are you doing with him?!" He demands of her, "He could light you on fire!"

"Um, right here." I say to him.

"Jeff, please go away. I broke up with you remember?" Her voice is strained and sounds tired of dealing with him.

"But I can't leave you alone with this guy! He could hurt you," He pleads.

"Says the wonder boy in full armor and a sword?" I say to him.

"Shut-up!—I'll run you through fire boy!" He yells at me.

"Jeff, go away." Abigail says.

He looks up at her but she shakes her head. Slowly he lowers his sword and I slowly extinguish my fists. He leaves unhappily and I turn back to Abigail.

"I'm so sorry about that!" She says, she begins to apologize more but I cut her off with a kiss.

She raps her hands around my neck and smiles into the kiss; I pull away from her and lean my forehead on her's.

She laughs a little and so do I, "Sorry about that…it was just kind of random…" I say awkwardly.

"No, its fine…" she says just as awkwardly.

I laugh again and so does she. I spend the rest of the day with her. When they call for dinner we head up together.

We spent the rest of the month like this, but on the last day I said good-bye to her and said in case I didn't come back I was going to let her go. Well, that allowed a nice Apollo boy to swoop in and steal her away when the camp found out about the Roman problem. Everyone figured we were dead, so she was grieving.

It's alright though, she loves him and that's all that matter's right?

* * *

**A/N: JustanotherHarryPotterfan3817: I want to say, some of the names aren't mine, they're from some quizzes on Quiblo, so ACTUAL copyright goes to them, but the personality and houses and stuff like that are created by me..Thanks! XD **


	4. Katrina Young

**A Series of Failed Girlfriends: A Leo Valdez Story**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

* * *

Yeah so far, I've told you all the sucky ending ones. Let's skip forward to my first 'girlfriend' it's not sad this time! So there is a bonus.

Kate Young, I knew her when I was eleven. She had long dark chocolate hair; she always kept it in a pony tail.

I was in my fourth foster home of the year, but this time I was going to stay at this one. The foster family was in Maine and Kate was my next door neighbor. The family was nice enough: mom, dad, three-year old daughter, fifteen year old son, and three black cats.

So let's start…

* * *

I'm sitting under the southern pine, something the family had brought with them from their Georgia home, messing with some weeds and twigs, eventually making a makeshift sling shot. I shoot a rock up at the tall tree. I hear it hit something and smile at myself, and then the small rock comes back and hits me right in the middle of the head.

"Ouch!" I say rubbing my head.

"Well you deserve that for hitting me!" A girl yells back.

"I didn't hit you!" I say scanning the yard for someone. The slanted yard of oaks and pines is empty of anyone else besides me.

"Up here dummy." The voice calls again.

I look up and to my amazement I see a girl about my age with light skin and long dark hair. She has it split up the middle of her head and hangings loose around her face and arms; her red t-shirt says: Evil League of Evil and her green shorts hang around her knees.

"Who are you?" I ask the strange-looking girl.

"I'm Katrina Young, who are you?" She doesn't actually sound like she is asking a question, more like she is demanding an answer.

"I'm Valdez, Leo Valdez." I say trying to look like James Bond. She laughs at my stupid move and shimmies down the tree like a pro; when she reaches the last branch (about five feet off the ground) she let's go and roles in a secret agent pose, "Well, Valdez, I'll let you know that I'm a secret agent for the FBI so don't try nothing!"

I nod scared out of my wits of this girl.

"Wow, did you believe that?" She asks eyes wide.

"What?!—No of course I didn't. I was just playing along with your childish game." I say proudly.

She gives me a secret smile and tells me to come closer. When I'm about two feet away she drops down kicks my feet out from under me. I fall flat on my back and it knocks the wind out of me.

I sit there trying to breathe and she comes over and squats down next to me, "It's not nice to lie Leo."

I look at her and she smiles.

I watch as she walks back over to the brick house next door. She doesn't go to the door though, no she climbs up on top of the air vent onto the first floor window sill then onto the flower box on the second floor, she pulls herself up and onto the window sill of that one and opens up the window climbing into a green room.

I lay there for a while longer thinking about her then sit up, "That…WAS AWESOME!" I shout.

"I know," She says from her window sill. I look up and she smiles at me.

The next day I run up to her front door and ring the bell.

"Hello little fellow, who are you?" A tall woman asks me. Her blond hair and tanned skin doesn't match up with the girl who I had met yesterday at all.

"Hi, I'm Leo Valdez. I live next door with the Birches, I was wondering—"

*SLAM* the door shuts in my face. I stand there confused for a minute then head back to my house.

"Leo, sweetie, did you go over to the Young house today?" Mrs. Birch asks me.

I nod and she smiles, "Aw sweetie, I'm sorry Miss. Young doesn't like us I'm sorry."

"But Katrina hung out with me yesterday!" I protest.

"No, Katrina is a sweet heart, we let her play on the trees, no her mother doesn't like us." Mrs. Birch corrects.

"But then wouldn't she be a Mrs.?" I ask.

"Well, usually, but sometimes moms and dads don't get married, and sometimes the dads leave…that's what happened with Katrina and Miss. Young." Mrs. Birch explains to me.

I nod to Mrs. Birch, knowing this all to well, she pats me on the head and I head back out to play. I turn back and she smiles at me.

Her short-cropped brown hair frames her always smiling face with dark brown eyes. She was a happy woman who always wore bright colors to show that she was happy. The entire Birch family is like her, brown hair brown eyes with the exception of the Mr. Birch he had blond hair and blue eyes, but all of them were happy. I have to say thinking back on it; they were the best foster home ever.

* * *

Katrina and I hung out periodically for two years after that, and I began to have a major crush on her.

* * *

"Hi!" I hear Katrina yell from her window. I look up and smile at her. She has her hair pulled back in a pony tail today and a black triceratops t-shirt on.

"Hi," I call back.

"Want to see something cool?" she asks. I nod and she climbs down out of the window.

"Come on, let's go," she takes my hand and leads me into the woods that sit behind all the houses in the neighborhood.

Going under the bob wire fence and through the thick woods we stumble across a cow herd.

"These are the run-aways." She tells me. She plops down on a fallen log. I sit with her and watch the cows graze and walk around the enclosed group of trees.

We sit in silence and they watch us for a bit but don't pay us much mind, "They got to leave…" She says with a half-smile.

"Hmm?" I question.

"They got to leave their so-called 'home'. That farm that would have killed them once they were old enough…" She clenches her fists and looks at me. I look at her confused but I can see that she is sad. I don't know what to say so I give her a hug. She sits there confused and not sure what to do but slowly melts into the hug. I stroke her back and I feel her let out a few tears.

"My dad left too…" I say remembering that conversation with Mrs. Birch so many years ago. She pulls away, "He did?"

"Yeah, I've never meet him. My mom said he was great, but if he was so great he why did he leave my mom?" I think of my mom and I almost cry. She gives me a hug and says, "Your mom is gone, isn't she?" I nod.

"I'm sorry…" She looks up, "I'll trade if you want." She gives me a half-smile and I laugh a little.

"Yeah, I rang the bell this morning and she slammed the door in my face." She laughs dryly at my comment.

"Yeah, she is a mean lady. Doesn't talk to anyone decent; just the snobs, I hate her. Is that bad?" She asks.

"No, and why don't you look like her?" I ask still a bit confused on that part, "She dyes her hair and goes to a tanning booth so she doesn't look like me. When we are out in public she calls me her niece."

I sit there mouth open eyes wide and she laughs, "Yeah, I know."

We sit in silence for a bit more than she smiles, "I want to show you something really cool!"

"Something like the cows?" I ask, worried it might be something just as weird.

"No, not like the cows," She huffs, "Do you want to see it or not?" I nod quickly and follow her through the thick woods.

How on earth she found this place or was able to find it again after leaving will always be a mystery to me.

A giant tree house: three stories high, with ladders and porches and what looked like bedrooms.

"My dad built it for me before he left." She whispers. I stare in amazement of the place.

She goes around to the giant maple tree and I see that there are small steps built into the tree. She begins to climb up and I quickly follow after her. When we reach the first porch I can see the entire wood. I see the cows, the neighborhood everything.

"This is…" I stare at it for another moment then turn to Katrina, "Katrina, this isn't cool." She turns to me and looked like she would throw me off the side of the rail.

"This is epic, awesomeness; I can't even come up with a word to explain this place." She smiles at me and says, "Don't call me Katrina, call me Kate."

I nod, "Kate, that's a nice name too." She smiles and taps me on the shoulder, "You're it!" She darts up the stairs to the first floor and I run after her.

I hear her go up the next set of stairs to the second floor but something catches my eye from the neighborhood's direction.

I turn around and look in that direction, what I see scares me so bad I scream. Quickly I cover my mouth and run up the stairs to Kate.

"Kate! Kate, stop running I need to show you something!" I urgently scream.

"What?" She asks leaning over the rail of the third floor.

"Look at the neighborhood." She turns and looks down towards it, when she sees it I hear her hit the floor.

Quickly I run up to check on her. "Kate are you alright?" She sits up and nod holding the back of her head.

She pulls it away and her hand is covered in blood. Her eyes widen and she puts her other hand on her head too, when that one comes back red also she begins to freak.

"Leo, my head is bleeding…" she says slowly.

"Yup, it is…but we have a slightly bigger problem. You know a hurricane coming towards us. Nothing major but we probably shouldn't be up in a TREE!" She nods and says, "Okay, come on. She heads into one of the rooms and takes up a few things from it and walks to the trunk. I follow her and she opens a small panel.

"This will keep us safe." A small red bubble forms around the two of us and she sits down. It slowly disappears but doesn't make me any less worried, "What was that?" I ask her.

"My dad gave it to me. He said if I was ever in danger to use it. It's like some protection thingy that he got from one of his brothers…but it keeps me and anyone within twenty feet of me safe."

I nod and walk over to a drawer that says first aid. I pull it open and find a ton of bandages and other medical stuff.

"We should deal with your head now." I say to Kate. She nods and sits down.

I take out her pony tail and check the wound. I take the disinfectant and clean it, which I'm rewarded with a punch in the arm for, then I wrap it up with a white bandage.

"There, it's done!"

She laughs at me but then we feel something shake…

The tree shakes violently I begin to step out of the room but Kate stops me.

"If you go out there you could be swept away with the wind. Please don't." I stop and go back over to where she is.

We sit and chat about random stuff, what we want to do when we are older, our favorite foods and just a ton of different things.

When the storm passes finally we look outside and see that the forest around us is just destroyed. Trees are down everywhere and there is now a clear path for us to walk back to the neighborhood. I look and see that the cows are now leaving the small circle of trees that they had been enclosed in.

"Leo…the Birch's house…" Kate says in a scared whisper. I turn and look in the houses direction but find that nothing is there. The small vegetable garden in the back seemed intake and the oaks and maples in the front look perfectly fine, but where the house had stood there was nothing but a concrete slab.

We walk to the neighborhood in shocked silence; when I reach the slab I knock on the cellar door. I wait in silence for a response, nothing. I try to kick the door in but still there is no budging that door. I feel Kate trying to pull me off but I just can't leave the door.

They have to be down there! They wouldn't be so stupid to not go into the cellar.

When Kate pries me off I turn and yell at her, "They are down there! They'll run out of air if they stay down there!"

"Leo…they aren't down there, they would have responded, I'm sorry they aren't." She says sorrowfully.

"You don't understand!" I scream, "They have to be down there, if they aren't they'll move me again! I can't do it, not again. I won't leave them, they were so nice…" I feel the hot tears boil over and begin to roll down my face.

Kate touches my shoulder but I pull away. I don't her to see me like this.

"Leave me alone." I say to her.

"Leo…please look at me." She says leaning close to me. I move away from her again and give her an evil look, the next words that came out I'll regret forever, "Stay away from me! You're a weirdo! Your father left you and your freak mother because you're all crazy!" She steps away from me and covers her mouth.

I realize what I've said a minute too late. She runs away to her untouched house.

* * *

When the police come back they asked what happened, I tell them that I had been in the woods and had gotten under a dead tree, and that once the storm passed I came back to this. I found out later that I was right and that the Birch's were in the basement but that a beam had fallen over the door and made it inoperable from the inside. However because of the home things they could no longer be my foster parents.

I said good-bye and thank you, they said they'd miss me and that if I ever needed a home they were there for me.

I was taken to a temporary/emergency foster house and stayed for 24 hours then taken to my next house.

I can never forgive myself for what I said to Katrina, I said it out of anger and I shouldn't. Later in the week I sent her a letter, it went a bit like this.

* * *

_Dear Katrina, _

_I know you shouldn't forgive me but I still need to apologize. I shouldn't have said what I did. The Birches were the only family that had ever been nice to me and I didn't want to lose them. I understand if you hate me forever, but I want you to know that I have had a giant crush on you for the past two years. I know I'm a completely horrible person, and you have complete legit reasoning to kill me next time you see me, if we ever see each other again. _

_Thank you for being my best friend for two years._

_Your sucky friend, _

_Leo Valdez_

* * *

The first day of camp I got a swirly from a long brunet haired Ares girl.

"Stay away from me fire boy!" She told me loudly; then dunked my head down into the toilet; but when she pulled it back out, "Remember you gave me legit reasoning to kill you…take this as an apology accepted swirly, good to see you lived Valdez." I turned to look at her and she gave me a wink. She left with her brothers and sisters but all I could think was, _Katrina, I found Katrina!_

* * *

**A/N: So tell me if you want to have a part two with Katrina or just leave it like this. Thanks for the great response guys **


	5. Grace Higgins

**A Series of Failed Girlfriends: A Leo Valdez Story**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

* * *

So…yeah that was Katrina…I'll go back to her later, I just want to talk about at my next home. So age thirteen and I had been moved out of Maine all together and down south to Alabama. I stuck at this one house for about a year but then they moved me when the family had their first kid.

So moved out of that house to one three counties over. I wound up in this little town called Beaverton; its population was 206 people of the entire town!

Now in Beaverton I meet a girl by the name of Grace Higgins. Her wild brown curls dance round her face and green eyes.

But yeah, let's just get started!

* * *

"This is Leonardo Valdez; he'll be the foster child you'll be taking care of." Miss Anderson, my case worker, says to the hill Billy family sitting on the other side of the desk.

I stand behind the door and watch as she hands the overall wearing people my photo.

"Why doesn't he lived with his Ma and Pa?" The littlest kid asks in a slurred southern tone.

"Well, he doesn't have a Pa or Ma anymore. So he has to find new ones." She replies to the little girl.

"Oh…why? Did they not like him?" She asks, stretching to see over the desk and at the case worker.

"No…his Mother died and the Father isn't in the picture." She replies quietly to the girl.

"Oh…" Is all the kid can say.

I knock on the door and enter the small un-air-conditioned room. "Ah, here he is!"

I give them a half-smile and wave.

"You have a dark tan." One of the middle boys tells me.

"No, I'm Spanish." I correct him quickly.

"So you a Mexican?" The boy tries to correct.

"No, I'm Spanish, my mom was from Spain." I look him over and smile, leaning in I whisper, "Like you're the son of a bunch of small-minded hill bellies."

"So would you be interested in taking him into your home for a few weeks?" The case worker asks the red neck parents.

"If he'll help around the farm then yes," The mother says quickly.

"Mary, are you sure?!" The man asks.

"Yes, if we can help this poor child then we will be doing some good. Would you like to come with us, Leonardo?" She asks with a warm smile.

"Yes ma'am. You can call me Leo if you would like." I reply with a smile.

"Okay, how soon can he come home?" She asks the case worker.

So a few hours later we enter the small town of Beaverton. Pulling off the high way and onto the gravel road the two small girls, a boy, teen girl and I bounce almost out of the bed of the truck more than a few times.

When we do reach the small house I can't see any other houses in any direction.

I look at the small house in front of me, a large wood front porch painted a light flaky blue; the house itself is a dirty yellow with raw wood trim and coal-black shingles. The old green truck we had ridden in pulls up to the small two-story farm-house, all the kids hop out of the truck easily and leave me in the dust of their foot falls.

Coughing, I pick up my suitcase and hop off the truck. A cloud of light brown dust swirls up around me making my eyes water and have another fit of coughing jump at me.

"Who's the Mexican?" I hear someone ask from the direction of the house.

"That's Leo, be nice Joseph," The mother says in a touchy tone.

The dust clears and I see an extremely tall boy with a light beard growing, his brown eyes glare at me, "So…you're the one they picked." He looks me up and down then laughs, "You're not gonna last a day here," he gives me an evil sneer then heads back into the creaking house.

Picking up the fallen case I follow Joseph into the house, "Whoa! Where do you think you are going?" He demands of me.

"Inside," I say simply.

"No. The one's part of this family live inside, the animals live outside. You can go in the barn." He says with a smug smile.

Not wanting to get kicked out as soon as a day I walk to the back of the house and into the red barn.

I climb up the hay loft ladder; sitting up there I can see the entire building it being larger than the actual house.

"Who are you?" I hear a girl ask. I turn and see a beautiful brunette; her cheeks are speckled with light freckles and curly mass of hair hang in two pig tails, she has on a pair of gray jeans that are torn to shreds and a stripped shirt with green vest over it. The thing that sticks out though is the large golden locket that hangs just under her chest bone.

"Um…" I begin to say something but then my mind goes blank.

"Um? Your name is Um. Well Um why are you in my barn?"

"Leo." I finally spit out.

"Leo? You're in my barn because of Leo. Who is Leo?" She sits down in front of me on the soft and warm hay.

I sit down next to her and smell slight lavender under tone.

"You smell pretty." I mumble.

"I like what?" I she asks confused.

"I said you smell pretty…"

She smiles and pats my wind-blown black hair, "Thanks Um."

"My name is Leo…" I say with a red face.

"I know I saw you guys pull up." She says with a smile.

"Who is Joseph?" I ask.

"My half-brother, he's a jerk…just like the rest of them." She says angrily.

"The mom doesn't seem that bad!" I say cheerfully.

"Ha! She's the worst of all. She despises me." She groans flopping backwards onto the hay.

"Why? You seem nice enough."

"I'm a 'mistake' made by my drunk of a father that popped back up a few years ago." She sighs at the ceiling.

"Yeah, he didn't seem so nice. When's dinner?" I ask realizing how hungry I was.

"It's at 6, you get to go inside and have dinner there, and I'll be having it out here with the other 'burdens' aka animals." Her stomach growls and she rolls over and lays face first in the yellow hay.

"Sorry, hey why don't you come and sit with me. They can't make their child do this, eat in the barn? That's just crazy! Come on, it's almost six now, just come in and see what happens." She rolls back over and looks me in the eye to see if I was telling the truth, I cross my heart and hold up the scout's solute, "I promise that nothing bad will happen to you."

We climb off of the loft and out of the barn; when we get to the front door Joseph stands there ringing a large brass bell.

"What do you think you are doing rats?" He asks us with a disgusted look on his face.

"We are going to have dinner," I tell him, shoving him to the side.

We walk into the messy house and to the back room that has a long dark wood table.

"Hi Leo, hi Grace," A small red-headed boy says to us.

"How many kids live here?" I ask Grace.

"There are Tommy, Jane, George, and Jill, Mary, Joseph, you and I plus the dogs and cats." She lists off.

"Wow," I reply impressed with the amount of kids.

"Leonardo! I'm glad you got here in time for dinner!" The mom says happily. "Please sit down right here."

She glides me over to a middle seat and places a giant plate of food in front of me; pasta, steamed vegetables, meatballs and all sorts of other great smelling foods.

A little girl with blond hair comes over and sits beside me, a boy version sits on my other side the little red-headed girl sits across from me, the older girl sits beside her, the two little boys on the little girl's other side, Joseph sits beside his father and the mother sits on the other end. Grace comes over and takes the last seat, the one right beside the woman who hated her.

I hear animals crunching on dried food and pear over and see in the kitchen that three black cats and two coon dogs sit eating their supper.

If I had a butter knife I could have cut the tension in the room, it was obvious that Grace and myself were not supposed to be there.

"So, Leonardo, tell us about you," The mom smiles.

"Well, um, I was born in Texas. I have lived in a few foster homes, usually in the north, and I'm thirteen." I say not really knowing how to respond.

"How did you wind up in the foster system?" The older blond girl asks.

"My mom died." I say quickly.

"How?" the red-headed girl asks.

"A fire, she was a mechanic, she worked on cars, and there was a gas leak and the place just caught fire. I was outside waiting for her to come out when it happened actually…" I say remembering the night. I shake my head and look up, "But enough about me, I want to know all of you!" I say with a smile.

"Why don't you stay with your aunties or uncles?" One of the little boys asks.

"They wouldn't take me in." I say quickly trying to get it to be obvious that I don't want to talk about it.

"Well, you want to know about us?" Joseph asks with a sneer.

"Yeah I would." I say giving him the evil eye.

"Well, all the youngsters are good little workers, Jane is in the eighth grade, I'm finishing high school and Grace is a rat that should be in the barn." He says this last part with a laugh that shakes the table.

I look at the mother and see that she is also smiling at this, the father stares intently at his dinner and Grace looks close to tears.

"Joseph," I say to get his attention, he looks up as if to say _what you want me to come and get you too? _

"You are a self-conceited prick who would have been shot down dead in Texas. That girl is your sister and you are treating her like she is nothing, but then again with a mother who allows this to happen I guess that's why you're so vain! Then there is you Sir, she is YOUR daughter you should be kind to her and beat some sense into your son before I do it for you." When I finish the entire table is silent, Joseph sits there looking ready to kill, Mrs. Higgins looks caught off guard, and Mr. Higgins has a mixed expression of anger and understanding.

After many moments of silence Mrs. Higgins stands up, "Get out." Her words are short and crisp.

Sliding my chair back with a squeak I exit the house and go back to the barn. I climb up to the hay loft and wait, after maybe thirty minutes Grace comes in. She climbs up the rickety ladder and sits down next to me, "You shouldn't have done that."

"I'm sorr-"

"Thank you." She has a giant grin on her face and hugs me. "You made me realize I don't need to stay. Thank you."

I hug her back but then she pulls away, "I need to pack!" She runs through the loft and into a small storage room area. I hear her shuffling things around and when she comes back out she has a giant jacket on over her striped shirt and green vest. A blue book bag hangs from one shoulder and she smiles a toothy grin at me.

I grab my bag and just out of instinct follow her. We walk along the dirt road, the interstate, and across the Alabama Georgia border in no time.

"Grace, where are we going?" I ask panting from having been walking since the day before.

"We are going to get to the train station." She says determined.

"We could have used the one that was in town!" I complain. She turn on her heel and looks at me.

"You can go back if you want. I didn't ask you to come." Her eyes burn with a flame that I know will never go out, one that is seeking for freedom.

"I want to stay with you." I say firmly. She smiles and pulls me along, "Don't worry it's just another mile."

I groan under my breath and she laughs at me.

When we reach the train station I see why she wanted to use it. A hole in the fence big enough for the two of us and some of the hitched box cars weren't closed. We climb in and hide behind some of the crates.

"Why did you want to come Leo?" Grace asks after a while.

"Because, I didn't like how they were treating you or me so why stay?" I say shrugging.

"Couldn't you get in trouble?" She asks.

"Well, yeah, but this is only my third house to run from so not to much."

"You've run away before?" Her tone was surprised in the dark box.

"Well, yeah but they were all pretty bad."

"Like my house…" She says angrily.

"No they were worse."

"How?" She sounds amazed by this which almost makes me laugh.

"Well one of the first places I was placed was in Texas, the dad was a drunk the mom wasn't around there were three other kids and all of them were in a gang, oh and they were unhappy, lets say, about having a Latino in their home. The second time I ran it was because of the mom, she was just so mean! She loved her kids and the dad was always busy at work so when she got angry who was the one she took it out on? Me of course; but besides being yelled at, she would get physically mean by burning me and stuff….it was horrible…"

I hear her moving around the box and then come up to me and give me a warm hug. "That's horrible," She says. "If I ever met them I swear I'll shoot them down." She whispers to me.

I laugh and tightly hold onto her. We feel the train pull away and we crawl into the corner to be pretty far away from the box door.

We talk through the night and at some point fall asleep, but when the train stops someone comes into our box.

"What are you two doing in here?!" A bristly bearded man in overall demands.

"Uh, um, well," I stutter; I look over at Grace and she looks just as panicked as I feel.

"Get out of there!" The man yells grabbing us both by our shirt collars.

"Sir, I don't think you understand—" Grace begins to say, "You two are a couple of run aways right?" He asks.

We nod and he laughs, "Then you can wait in the station headquarters for the police to come and get you!" He throws us into a ten by ten by seven box with windows and locks the door behind him.

"Now what," I ask Grace.

"I don't know…"

"I'll tell you what happens I'll be sent to another foster home, and you'll be either sent back or sent to a foster home yourself."

She looks at me pissed, "I did NOT ask you to come with me. You just followed me! It's not MY fault you are in this mess, it's all your own! So don't be acting like it isn't."

I bawl my fists, "No YOU didn't! I came with you because YOU would have gotten yourself hurt! I didn't want you to be hurt, it's not MY fault that WE are in this mess; so stop acting so self-righteous we are in this mess TOGETHER no matter how much you don't want to be."

She stomps her foot and turns away from me. I roll my eyes and sit down on the dirt covered floor.

What feels like years pass and the man comes back with two other men in gray uniforms.

"This is them officers." The burly man says with a smug grin.

The two men pull the pair of us out of the room and into the back of the police cars.

One of them is a younger guy with dark hair and looks a bit Hispanic, the other is light-haired with blue eyes and pale skin.

The Hispanic officer bends down and looks me in the eye, "My name is Officer Rodriguez, what's your name little fella?"

"Leonardo Valdez," I state quickly and simply.

"Well, Leonardo Valdez, you know it's against the law to be in one of those cars."

"It's not a car; it's a box on the platform that is being moved on wheels by a train."

He chuckles, "True, now why are you and the little lady on there?"

"I have the right to remain silent and the right to a lawyer, I don't have to tell you anything." I say to the man.

"No, no you don't. However you aren't under arrest so it would be better if you would just tell me why and what you were doing on there." He gives me a smile but I keep on my poker face mode.

"I'm in foster care, I was given to her family and they are evil hick people. They make her sleep in the barn; we left because they were mean. This was a quick way to get away." I say to the man finally.

I look over and see Grace glaring at me. One of the things I have seen from her is that she does not like help or pity. She gets in the back of the police car and the other man drives off with her.

"Come on, I'll take you to the station and we'll all talk about it."

* * *

In the end Grace was put into foster care and was adopted by her first family…she gave me a hug before she left and told me that she wouldn't forget me, and that she was sorry and thankful.

I was sent to my next home…but this time I meet a really cool girl, I'll tell you about her later ;)


	6. Gabriela Skye Watson

**A Series of Failed Girlfriends: A Leo Valdez Story**

* * *

**Chapter Six**

* * *

Dedicated to: Shazza_Loves_Teddies

* * *

Okay so I was gonna tell you about a girl I meet in Georgia next but I would like to skip forward a bit to when I was seventeen and at camp, we had come back from the quest and I was becoming very 'popular' with the ladies! Well there were also abundance of girl's from foreign countries to add to that.

About a week from being back from the deadly quest I meet Gabriela Skye Watson. Miss. Watson was originally from Australia, and a daughter of Apollo. Unlike most Apollo kids she had pale brown hair and a pale complexion with brown eyes and braces.

But let's just start the story! That's much more entertaining than this...

* * *

Standing in front of the Apollo cabin I let the sun rays warm me, "Uh, what are you doing?" I hear a girl giggle.

Putting my lifted arms down quickly I open my eyes to see that a girl with brown hair and brown eyes was staring at me from behind thick black framed glasses.

"Uh...It's warm right here?" I say a bit awkwardly.

"Then go hang out in the forge." She says going back to her guitar that I hadn't noticed before now.

"Yeah but I spend a ton of time there, and the Apollo cabin has a ton of-" Before I can finish she puts her hand up, "Aphrodite cabin is that way if you're looking for a bunch of bimbos."

"HEY! My best friend is an Aphrodite girl, you might know her Piper McLean?"

Her head snaps up quickly at that and looks at me with a frightened look, "Oh my gods, please don't tell her I said that all the Aphrodite girls' are bimbos!" I laugh and sit down on the porch beside her, "Only if you tell me your name." She rolls her eyes and sighs, "I'm Gabriela Skye Watson, but you can just call me Skye."

A blond with blue eyes stealing ice cream with me pops up in my head, I take a breath and try to get her out of my mind, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah...well no, can I please call you Gabriela? My old best friend was named Skylie and well, she disappeared...after being attacked by a Hydra..." I trail off hoping she would understand and thankfully she does.

"Yeah yeah, no problem. What's your name?"

"Well," I say with a smile, "You could call me repair boy, admiral, Mr. Spock, supreme commander of the Argo II, Valdez, but most people call me Leo."

"Well, then I'll call you Leo. So what do want?" Her smile is sly and I almost laugh with the face she is making.

"Well, do you play?"

"Yes, would you like to hear?" I nod and she begins to play a slow melody that slowly becomes an awesome guitar solo! I sit there confused as to how she did it and she laughs, "Do you play any?"

"Not a note."

She laughs and over the course of a few weeks she slowly teaches me how to play cords on the guitar.

I get to know her and how she really is, like most people I have meet in my life she is much more than the happy mask that she keeps on.

Like one day I went for my usual lesson and I was a bit early but when I showed up I couldn't find her in the cabin or on the porch, but up an oak tree behind the cabin I found her. She sat there crying silently.

"Hey, are you okay?"

She turns to see me sitting on a branch just a bit below and to the side of her's. She wipes away her tear's and tries to hide them with a smile, "Yeah, allergies, that's all. I'm sorry am I late for the lesson?"

I shake my head and climb up to the branch with her, "That's a terrible lie, come on tell me what's wrong."

She stares into my eyes as if to ask if I'm being serious and when I don't waver or look away she sighs.

"It's my sister's birthday..." I nod and wait for her to continue, "She died, because of me on her birthday." She starts to cry again, I pull her into a hug and hold her till she calms down, "You don't have to tell me anything, you know that right?" I ask her.

"No...I need to tell someone..." She takes a shaky breath and continues.

"She was only ten, and really my half sister, but no one had told us that back then. Well, my 'dad' and mom sent us out to go and get some dinner from the local store and we didn't take the bikes since it wasn't to far. I was twelve, I should have seen it coming...We got to the store and got the food but on our way back she fell down, she was behind me and I didn't turn around I just said 'Come on! You're ten you can get up on your own!' She didn't say anything back...I turned and saw a bunch of small green snakes. We lived in Kansas so snakes weren't uncommon but I had never seen these before. There were like ten or twelve, they were quickly heading over to her and if she didn't get up soon they would be on her! I couldn't move it was like I was petrified. The snakes started breathing fire! Fire! I know now that their Basilisks but then they were just these small green snakes that breathed fire and were going to attack my little sister. I kept trying to move but I couldn't, I couldn't even say anything. I watched those _things _kill her...I unfroze when it was over and all I could do was scream. Nothing comprehensible just screams; the people from the store came and saw what had happened. When I went home from the hospital my dad only yelled at me and my mom. He said it was all my mom's fault for having a 'devil' child with a fake god. He said he wasn't my dad he never loved me and that it was all my fault that she died...and it is...I should have done something..." Her breath goes shaky and turns into hard sobs.

"Gabriela, it's not your fault. I know what it's like to feel helpless in your own body. You might have heard I kind of bombed the Roman camp, but really it was Gaea who just took me over." She looks up and shakes her head.

"It's not my fault? I should have saved her, they should have attacked me! I'm the demigod, she was a sweet little kid..." More and more tears overflow and I can't help but pull her closer.

"The monster's know who the demigods are, they do whatever will either physically or mentally break them. You're a daughter of Apollo, you can't be physically hurt as badly, but mentally you're just as vulnerable. So they went after something you loved dearly, your little sister." She looks up from my shoulder and I give her a soft smile.

She slowly stops crying and I help her down from the tree.

* * *

We spend the rest of the week talking about our families and how screwed up they are, the joy we had with some and just our lives.

* * *

A few months go by and she's still 'tutoring' me; I go to the cabin and a heated argument is going on inside.

"I said get out!" Something is thrown and it breaks into smithereens. I wait and listen and slowly a crowd forms around the Apollo cabin steps.

"You don't need to be around him! He's a bad influence on you!" Another item is thrown and smashed at the speaker.

"You can't tell me what to do! Now out!" I can now tell that it's a man telling Gabriela that I'm a bad influence.

"You aren't listening to reason. Maybe you don't need to be at camp for a few weeks." The man says, I can almost picture him crossing his arms and looking at her like a child.

"I don't have to listen to you! You're NOT my father!" Another thing is thrown, heavier this time, and it doesn't break.

I look around and the other campers just stare at the closed door and closed curtains. I move to the door and slowly turn the handle. Standing on the far side of the room is Gabriela, she does not look happy to see the man standing behind one of the bunk beds for protection from her projectiles.

"Be reasonable! Talk to me!" He pleads.

"I thought I didn't listen to reason! So get out!" She gestures at the door and then see's me standing there, she goes quite and that causes the man to look in my direction also.

"So, you must be Leo." The man says with a frown.

"Yes, I'm Leo, who are you?" I ask completely confused on the situation I had just walked in on.

"I'm Apollo, god of the sun, music, medicine and many other things but more simply I'm Gabriela's father." When I become stalk still and try not to breath to much he laughs and smiles.

"Now, I'd like to have a discussion with you, if you don't mind hero?"

"Apollo, he isn't part of this. Leave him out of it!" Gabriela pleads.

"He's the complete reason for this discussion, now I'm gonna talk to our little hero and then be on my way. Stay safe sweetie." He grasps my shoulder and then we aren't in the airy bright white and gold Apollo cabin.

We are standing on a hill side that over looks a desert.

"So Leo, you've been spending a lot of time with Gabriela lately haven't you?" He asks hand still on my shoulder.

"Yes Lord Apollo," I say timidly.

"Well, I don't think you're the right kind of person to be hanging around her, so if you wouldn't mind stay away from her." His smile looks very forced and unnatural.

"Lord Apollo?" I ask after a long pause, "I can't do that." I tell him looking at the desert that could become my grave if he wanted to toss me over.

"Excuse me?" He asks, his tone says to take it back or die but I don't; if anything I make it worse.

"I love her Apollo, I won't leave her willingly. You'll just have to kill me." I begin to feel the god's hand, that still is gripping my shoulder tightly, heat up like it was about to become the sun itself.

"I'll do one better, I'll erase your mind of her. You won't remember a thing about her." I stare up at the god and see a smirk starting to form on his face.

I know that there is no way around it so I try to get a deal, "Three hours," I say.

"What?"

"Give me three hours to remember her. So I can tell her I love her and spend one last afternoon with her..." I'm pleading now, I don't want to forget this amazing girl.

"Fine, three hours and your memories of her will be gone, and you will never speak to her again." When the final word is said I am suddenly back in the Apollo cabin.

I explain to Gabriela what had happened and the deal that I had struck with her father. She looked so sad, but said that we should write it down, our days together, the jokes we made and everything that had happened. I agreed and in an hour we had it all typed up. The next two hours we spent enjoying each others company and having fun.

The dinner bell rang and I slowly couldn't remember bits and pieces of who she was and then gone. Every day, ever moment, ever happy thought and memory gone.

* * *

I waved good-bye to this strange crying girl and walked to the dinning pavilion.

* * *

When I got back to the Hephaestus cabin I found a letter on my bed. This is what it said:

* * *

Dear Leo,

Thank you for being my friend, and understanding me. Thank you for all the days laying in the sun and talking about the future. All the nights that you would hold me, and all the times we went on snack runs in the middle of the night. I'll cherish these memories forever. I know this won't make any sense to you but just know that I love you.

~Gabriela

P.S. Read the story

* * *

So yeah that's where most of this chapter came from, the story that I supposedly wrote with this girl, I still can't think of this girl I don't even remember seeing her in passing, but it's a nice thought that there is a girl out there that loves me, sounds good to me.


	7. Hallie Livengood

**A Series of Failed Girlfriends: A Leo Valdez Story**

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

* * *

Her name was Hallie Livengood. I meet Hallie when I was twenty-four and she was twenty-three; she was the person who made me wake up, and forgive my friends; even if she broke my heart in the process.

* * *

I was back at camp, the Roman's were there, the hunters were there, Poseidon, and Athena were all there. The other seven, Nico, and Tyson were also there. Malcolm was there of course, he was one of the groomsmen. Everyone was standing around being happy. Except for one blond-haired girl standing off to the side; she leans against a tree in a black dress and top. She smiles at the happy couple standing at the altar, Percy and Annabeth, and watched as they kissed their I do's.

The ceremony, for friends, ends and Percy and Annabeth head down to the limousine waiting for them in front of the big house; they climb in and drive away to the second ceremony for family.

The people begin to leave and I see Piper and Jason herding three little kids towards a minivan. I laugh and watch one run over to me.

The little guy has Piper's hair and smile but has Jason's eyes and body. I pick him up and walk him back over to his parents.

"Hey guys!" I say to the stressed looking couple.

"Oh, hi Leo," Jason grumbles. Piper gives me a smile then takes back the little guy. She picks up another boy and Jason scoops up a little girl, which oddly looks a lot like Thalia.

"Jenny, you know you can't visit; now head back to your mommy." Jason says to the little girl. She nods and quickly skips off to Thalia, who stands in her Hunter uniform.

"So how have you two been?" I ask with a smile.

"Stressed," Piper says trying to hold both squirming boys. Jason takes one and continues to glare at me.

"How have you been Leo?" Piper asks with a smile.

"I've been good; I have my own mechanic shop in New York now so it's been good."

Jason looks at his, expensive, watch and says that they needed to be going. They get into their minivan and pull away.

I meander over to Thalia to talk but then I see something unexpected, Thalia kisses Nico! The little girl calls him daddy and he picks her up. Thalia waves good-bye to Artemis and they disappear with Nico's shadow travel.

The girl with blond hair remains leaning against the tree watching this all with sad eyes.

"Hi," I say to her. She looks at me a bit confused then shakes her head, "Hello," she says back.

Her hair has trickles of black in it and her dark green eyes flecked with brown.

"Hey, would you want to go hang out or something?" She shrugs and we head over to the lake.

"So what's your name?"

"Hallie Livengood, what's yours?"

"Leo Valdez."

"So you're a hero or something?" She asks with a half-smile.

"Not really, I haven't been back to camp in years… I haven't seen the other seven since I was eighteen, really weird to be back honestly." I say remembering the fall out.

"Well, is it true?" She asks with a questioning look.

"What?" I ask confused.

"That you can use fire; I was told that you could, I started camp a year after you left."

"Well, yeah, here I'll show you." I lift my hand and show her my lit fingers. She watches the flame dance from finger to finger and dims and blazes back to life.

We sit on the pier and talk for a few hours, when we hear a few kids come running down to the lake at almost midnight.

"Oh, sorry, we didn't see you guys there." A boy says. His black hair and brown eyes remind me of Nico. The girl stands awkwardly next to him, her blond hair and gray eyes give away that she is an Athena girl, and she looks quite a bit like Annabeth.

"Whose kids are you?" I ask out of curiosity.

"Um, I'm a son of Hades, and she's a daughter of Athena." The boy says awkwardly.

"What about the oath?" I ask now completely confused.

"The oath was destroyed about 19 years ago," The girl says. I nod realizing that Hades, Zeus and Poseidon kids were probably pretty common now.

"So how many siblings do you have?" I ask.

"Hades, Zeus and Poseidon are only allowed to have one kid at camp at a time. So it's just me in the cabin." The boy says plainly. He and the Athena kid run off back to the main camp and I shake my head in confusion.

"That's just a bad plan; world war three will start…" I say, mostly to myself.

"Well, then it'll be another fifty years and they'll try it again." Hallie sighs.

"True, they seem to have very short memories about those things." I laugh.

I take her hand and help her up, "Can I escort you to the city?" I ask her with a smile.

"Well, my ride isn't supposed to come till tomorrow, so why not?"

I laugh and we head to my new sports car.

We go up to the roof of my apartment building, and watch the city and the blank city night sky.

"Leo?" She whispers from next to me.

"Yes?" I whisper back, I put my arm around her and pull her closer so I can hear her mumbles.

"Why did you want to talk to me?"

"Because you looked lonely…like me…" I say with a bit of sadness.

"I…I can't even compare to the sadness I've heard you went through…" She says with a frown. I think of what she could have heard but then she continues, "I was told that your mom died...and that you were left at the alter…and that you had been dumped by girls you loved…and that you…" I listen to her continue listing off everything that people had told her that had happened to me, I thought of each of these events knowing what she said was true. Then she was quiet

"What happened with you and your friends?" She asks after a pause.

Thinking back on the night in that apartment with them all makes me cringe. "Listen I don't want to talk about it." I say pulling my arm away, "It's late; you should get going home…"

"Leo, I live in Virginia, I can't go home…" I look at her and sigh. "I'll get you a cab back to camp then."

She sits up and looks at me, "Listen I'm sorry for asking, but I can get my own cab." She stands up and walks back into the building.

I sit there for a minute then get up and follow her.

"Hallie, I'm sorry that was rude." I say to the empty hall.

I look around and ride the elevator down to the lobby; I ask George, the door man, if he had seen her.

"Leo, she went down the road that way," He points towards the empire state building and I thank him. Running down the street I look for the blond.

"Hallie!" I scream down the street, nothing.

It's this just before dawn time of the city where everyone is home, there isn't a single person going down the street and no cars are going down the street. When I turn the corner I see a figure walking down the street in all black.

I catch up to them and turn them around, the blond stares at me with a tear streaked face.

"Hallie, I'm sorry. That was rude; I shouldn't have been mean about it. I just…I just don't want to talk about that. Why were you crying?"

She stands there and takes a deep breath puffing her chest up, "No one pays attention to me. I figured you were different. You weren't, I'm going back to camp and getting the ride from my friend home. Good-bye Leo…"

She pushes me aside and whistles a passing cab down. She climbs in and it drives away.

I don't know what it was but I felt like I needed to get her, I needed to see this girl. It was probably Aphrodite, but I ran after the cab.

When it stopped she got out of the cab, "Leo what do you want."

"Those things you said were true. All of it. None of those things were stories and it all happened to me. I have serious baggage, you have to know that."

"Okay," She says looking for me to continue.

"Please don't go back to Virginia." I don't know where the words came from but they felt right…

She stares at me and when I don't waver she nods.

"I'll stay for a week, and then we'll see…I guess…" She says a bit confused.

I smile and close the cab door. I hand the man some cash and we walk back to my apartment together.

I make some eggs and toast for breakfast. She smiles and takes a few bites.

"So…you really want to know what happened with me and my friends." I ask.

"Yes." She says firmly.

"Okay…So I had just gotten an apartment for myself in the city and the gang was over to hang out. That would be Nico Di Angelo, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase now Annabeth Jackson, Piper McLean now Piper Grace, Jason Grace, Hazel Levesque now Hazel Zhang and Frank Zhang. I made a big dinner and we were all eating when an argument broke out. Jason and Piper were fighting and I tried to get them to calm down and Jason swung at me, so I swung back. Only difference is that my swing landed a hit. He got a bloody nose and by the end of the night I had two cracked ribs, a broken nose, and one black eye. Piper almost left him for doing that, but she didn't. I had to go to the hospital and when I came back Piper was the only one there…they all just left me. I felt like I was still the unimportant seventh wheel…I haven't seen any of them since then, well till yesterday that is. I never went back to camp, and none of them have ever tried to contact me. So yeah that's what happened." I breath for a moment and look at her.

"So, what's your sad tale?" I ask now wanting to know.

"You want to know why I'm so screwed up." She asks with a dry laugh. I nod and she sighs.

"My dad is the god of death, and for his first pick since the forties he got a woman who was a drug addict and an alcoholic. She didn't care for me and I basically lived on my own. I was taken to the underworld and lived as a servant till I was eighteen, the year after you left, and was announced as a Hades kid. So that was pretty traumatizing."

We talk about our childhoods for a few more hours and I tell her I have to go to work. I leave her with a key to the apartment so if she left she could get back in and headed down to the mechanic shop.

We spend the week like this and on the last night she stays…we didn't talk about it she just stayed.

She stayed for a full year, and I was getting a friend again and a girlfriend at the same time.

Then May rolled around…I came home from the mechanic shop and found the apartment empty.

I call her cell and nothing. I go down to the front desk and find out that she left a few hours earlier.

* * *

I wait in the apartment for her to come back, I wait for the entire night, the next day I go to work and when I come back she is still gone. I didn't sleep for an entire week. I found that she ditched out on the city life. She went back to Virginia, and never contacted me again.

* * *

Percy called that same night.

"Hey dude, so how have you been?" He asks kind of awkwardly.

"I could be doing better but its fine, anyhow how you and the wife?" I reply taking another sip of my beer.

"Good, we, she, uh well Annabeth is going to be having twins!" I almost drop the phone when he says this.

"Wow dude! Congrats, when are the two little guys or girls due?"

"Well this summer solstice actually, I mean go figure!" Percy says with a laugh.

I laugh at the irony of this and begin to say something but Percy interrupts me, "Leo, I was wondering if you wanted to come over and help me out with making some stuff for the babies room, and I don't know catch up?" I smile and nod, then remembering that he can't see me, "Yeah man, I'd love too!"

"Awesome, see you on Saturday? If that's good for you?"

"Yeah, I'm off so that's good, you in the same little apartment?"

"No, we moved up to the fourth floor of the same building, 54D is the number." I nod and write it down on a napkin beside me.

"See ya on Saturday then!"

"Okay man, see you then."

* * *

I smile to myself, I was gonna get my friends back, even if I do lose Hallie in return…

* * *

So that's chapter Seven, not very good I know, but it's something right? No? Oh, okay :( Sorry...


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